The Insidercaught up with Julie Plec for an excellent and lengthy discussion about tonight’s new episode, Memorial, and the events and fallout of last week’s Season 4 premiere, Growing Pains. In addition to touching on the big mystery set up in last week’s final moments and Elena’s journey as a newbie vampire, Plec also explains why tonight’s Memorial acts as a Season 3 finale:

Insider.com: Earlier you mentioned that you were slow playing these first few episodes. Does that allow these characters, whose lives whoosh by, to take stock of everything that’s happened?Julie: For sure. I look at episode two in my own special way as the finale of last season’s journey. We never got a chance to mourn, we never got a chance to properly grieve Alaric. In a way, our characters are never given the opportunity to sit and think about the terrible things that happen to them. This is a way of saying to the audience, we are allowing ourselves this moment to grieve. We are putting this away and moving forward. In many ways, episode three is truly the launch of season three [four? - V.] in that we’re really beginning a new chapter. Episode one and two are almost like a nice bow wrapped on end of season three.

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A Visitor's Guide to Mystic Falls is an anthology of essays that brings together today’s best YA writers of the supernatural to talk about the Vampire Diaries' first season, from the characters to the storyline, the magic and the town. Edited by Red & Vee. Due October 19th.

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